"The general manager of Parma Football Club, Baraldini, has confirmed that the team's manager, Baldini, has been fired. The 0-1 away loss to the league's vice-monitor, Atalanta, became the direct trigger for Baldini's dismissal …"
Li Ang's mouth was wide open as he looked at the television screen in surprise.
Banderas nudged Li Ang with his arm. "Your 'fellow killer' is really powerful. The game hasn't even started and their manager has been fired."
Li Ang smiled bitterly and shook his head.
It was already two days after the game against Malaga. The Sporting de Gijón team had already arrived in the small Italian city of Parma to prepare for the UEFA Europa League quarterfinals against the Serie A team, Parma.
They had arrived in Parma the night before. After a night's rest, they learned from the television news that Parma's manager, Baldini, had been fired.
This really surprised Li Ang. The game against Sporting de Gijón was about to start, but Parma had actually fired their manager before the game …
*****
"This can only mean one thing. This team's patience with their manager has reached its limit. Otherwise, they would not have changed their manager at this time," Ribéry said. Ribéry said. The players were also talking about this matter. They all felt that it was too strange and made their own guesses.
Sporting de Gijón's Italian left-back, Fabio Grosso, heard the news and felt sorry for Baldini because the latter had coached him before. That was when Grosso played for Palermo.
The 46-year-old Baldini did not have a brilliant coaching experience before coaching Parma. In the 2002-03 season, he had been the manager of Empoli and then the manager of Serie B team Palermo. But in January 2004, the club felt that he could not bring the team to the heights it should have and was dismissed by the club's chairman, Zamparini. But in fact, Palermo was ranked third in Serie B at that time and had a pretty good record. They were then promoted to Serie A.
His resume was ordinary, so when Parma chose Baldini to coach, it caused a lot of discussion last summer. People discussed the matter and came to the conclusion that Baldini was chosen because his salary was very low and he saved money. This was the most important thing for Parma, which was in a financial crisis.
From the news, Li Ang learned that Parma's new manager was called Piero. Pietro Carmigiani. He thought about it in his mind, but he still couldn't find any impression or memory of this person. This could only mean that this person's coaching results were average, or even terrible, and he didn't really make a name for himself.
This made Li Ang despise this person more or less. In his eyes, among the current Italian team coaches, only famous managers such as Lippi, Ancelotti, Capello, and so on could make him look up to them. The rest were just a few "young coaches" such as Spalletti and Prandelli.
*****
Parma had only 180,000 permanent residents and was considered one of the most refined cities in Italy. The Teatro Reggio, which was located here, was world-famous. It was comparable to La Scala in Milan.
Parma was a livable, refined, small, medieval-style, rich, and bourgeois city. It was even considered by some to be a unique place in the world. Parma's ham was unique. Parma's cheese was the benchmark in the industry. Parma's pizza brand, Hundred Flavors, was known to the world. You could eat it in any big shopping mall in the world. There was also Parma's glassware brand, Pomioli, which was also well-known.
Of course, the Sporting de Gijón team was not there to enjoy themselves. They wanted to take away a satisfactory result from Parma: victory.
Li Ang was still confident and looking forward to winning the away game. A big reason for this was Parma's current terrible situation. They were now ranked 17th in Serie A. The team that was in the top six in Serie A last season was now in the relegation zone. What was worse was that Parma was in a financial crisis.
In fact, as one of the Seven Sisters of Serie A, Parma had been in the lower leagues for most of the 101-year history of the team, even though they had once enjoyed limitless glory. In fact, it was only after the team was promoted to Serie A in 1990 that Parma became famous around the world. At that time, the dairy company, Parmalat, bought the club, and the CEO, Calisto Tanzi, personally became the club's chairman. In history, running a Serie A club was never a way to make money. An executive of a Serie A club that was even bigger than Parma had once said that, to a large extent, when the owners invested in a club, they were either doing an image project or buying a big toy. Tanji was such an example.
Tanzi spent money like water and built Parma's "Golden Decade." In the 90s, Serie A was full of stars, and Tanzi's team also had a continuous stream of superstars: Crespo, Parma's all-time leading scorer, was now the manager of Parma's youth team; Thuram, one of the most famous defenders in the history of the French national team; Asprilla, the representative of Colombia's golden generation; and the current Italian national team's main center back, Alvaro Cannavaro … Parma won two UEFA Europa Cups, one UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, one UEFA Super Cup, and three Coppa Italia. Now, when you walked into Parma's Clerzio Training Center, you could see these victory paintings on both sides of the corridor. Under Tanzi's care, the Clerzio Training Center was completed before the millennium. At that time, Tanzi wanted to move the team to the vicinity of Parma's headquarters in Clerzio, so he funded the construction of the base.
Parma's success was not just a football team. Just as the logo of Etihad Airways could be seen on the jerseys of Manchester City and New York FC today, Parma's jerseys at that time were also a living advertisement for Parma. In the mid-90s, Parma expanded into Eastern Europe, and Tanzi bought the former Ballon d 'Or footballer, Stoichkov, whose career had gone downhill. To sign the Bulgarian from Barcelona, Tanzi forked out 10 million US dollars — a rare high price in that era. When Parma entered Africa, Parma bought players from Ivory Coast and Ghana.
However, in 2003, Parma's fraud case broke out, and the food empire collapsed. It was compared to "Europe's Enron." At that time, Parma's was the eighth largest company in Italy, with 36000 employees and an output value that accounted for 1% of Italy's GDP. It was estimated that Parma's debt was close to 20 billion US dollars. Tanzi went bankrupt, was convicted of fraud, and was sentenced to more than 17 years in prison. The Parma club was put into administrative receivership, and then the court appointed a bankruptcy agent.
To put it bluntly, the future of the Parma club was bleak. The club did not even know who the future boss would be, and did not even know if there would be a boss willing to take over Parma.
*****
"Piero? The first game led by Piero Camignani is against the dark horse of La Liga, Sporting de Gijón, in the UEFA Europa League. All we can do is wish Camignani and Parma good luck. If they can defeat Sporting de Gijón at home, and eventually eliminate this opponent to enter the UEFA Europa League semi-finals, it will be the best way to boost morale for Parma … "said Milan Gazzetta dello Sport when looking forward to the game between Parma and Sporting de Gijón.
"Destroy Sporting de Gijón, in the name of Parma and victory!" Parma's local newspaper, Sardinia Post, wrote on the front page, cheering the team on.
April 7, Parma, in the visiting team's locker room at the Tardini Stadium.
"Guys, you have to teach this fallen opponent a good lesson today." Li Ang was encouraging his players. "Tell them the difference between a team that avoids relegation in Serie A and a team that aspires to be La Liga champions!!"
Sporting de Gijón's manager said with a murderous look.
PS: I'm not feeling well, and my abdominal pain is unbearable. That's one chapter for today, and three chapters for tomorrow. Thank you everyone for your support.
Pleading for a monthly ticket.
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